Category: Republican History Bite

Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973) went from Montana rancher’s daughter to first woman elected to US Congress. Jeannette was the eldest of eleven children, received a public school education and proceeded to earn a college degree in biology. She dabbled briefly in a variety of careers but circumstances sparked an interest in improving slum conditions, working with […]

Most early Americans agreed that western expansion was crucial to the well being of our fledgling nation. However, incorporation of new western territories into the Union was accompanied by the controversial concern of how to deal with the institution of slavery. For three decades, a contentious, uneasy peace had existed between the agrarian, pro-slavery South […]

The elephant as a symbol of the Republican Party was conceived in the imagination of cartoonist Thomas Nast. Two unique cartoons, one in 1860 the other in 1872, connected Republicans with the elephant but the concept was galvanized in a publication in Harper’s weekly in 1874. The story goes that the Democrat Press began fear […]